It's a pretty old concept for most of us, harking back to the days of early childhood, when we would bring our favorite toy/parent/mishandled frog to the front of the class and make some pertinent remarks regarding them.



New Citizens Incorporated (NCI) has been running Show and Tell for new folk for ... well, just about as long as it's been around. Now, however, it's time for all those of us 91 days and older to polish up our skills and have a bash at "Oldbie Show and Tell"!

Anything that you yourself have made in Second Life (perhaps with some slight assistance) is a valid choice, be it buildings, scripting, works of art, or what have you, though they do ask that you restrict the size of your entries so that they fit on the stage (or at least, partly on the stage and partly on the heads of the audience - Show and Tell contestants have something of a tradition of squooshing the audience); items that cannot be brought in due to size can be photographed, and people are quite understanding of the limitations of this procedure.

The crowd can number upwards of 25 avatars, and is generally supportive and jocular. Unless you turn up and try to sell them "All New Plywood on a Box", you are unlikely to go away feeling unappreciated. Prizes are awarded for first, second and third place, at L$500, L$300 and L$200 respectively.

To give you a feeling for the sorts of entries you might be up against, here is a listing of the contestants and their entries for yesterday's showing (Monday May 21, 2007, 7pm, Usability Island), in order of presentation:

• Friesian Steuben ended up opting to withdraw his entry; he wished to present his residence, 'Paradise in the Sky', and attempted to do so with the use of stills, sadly these did not do justice to the movement and atmosphere of the original.
• Winning first place, Brace Coral presented herself as a living statue; entitled "Queen of the Rubber Bands", it was a study in marble and rubber that captured the audience's attention.
• Winning third place, Iceslayer Columbia's playground, featuring animations specific to each piece of equipment. Since the whole playground could not be brought in, Iceslayer demonstrated the monkey bars for us and displayed images of the rest of the equipment in situ in the background.
• Greenman Mondegreen brought in a pair of nifty posing stands, each richly decorated and able to be set up to display an avatar in several different poses.
• Zugla Xeno presented his "buggy house" - literally, a giant lady-bird capable of containing avatars in a house-like manner, looking somewhat similar to a campervan.
• Winning second place, Kat Claxton had created a coffee fountain.
• In spite of the language barrier, Tzarr Matova brought forth his companionable beast, a spider that copied his every move.
• Carl Metropolitan presented his display of NCI Factoids, a series of thirty things to know about Second Life and/or NCI that you did not previously know.
• Arawn Spitteler's "mugging hat" (you kind of had to be there), a complicated-looking twisty confection that twirled merrily upon the owner's head.
• Trun Yosuke entry was a result of his interest in form, function and frosting - a sturdy, comfortable bench ended with panels that displayed an artwork in one direction and which were transparent in the other.
  

Also many thanks to today's host, Jon Harlow, who managed to fit in all the contestants and held and completed the judging despite a sim crash just before the voting phase.